Back when I was debating whether to make the jump back to being an independent sportswriter, I had a conversation with a fellow independent writer who was walking me through the pros and cons of being my own boss.
One of the pros he brought up was that there wouldn't be a single editor or manager who could fire you. One mistake, or one personality conflict, wouldn't threaten your career. By contrast to traditional media, running a subscription business meant it was unlikely that you'd wake up one morning and thousands would decide to unsubscribe all at once. That made a bit of sense, and helped offset some of the risk in breaking out and starting up my own thing.
The flip side to that, though, is that you end up feeling responsible to thousands of people, rather than being responsible to just one boss.
